DLA Piper joins scheme to employ UAE locals

DLA Piper’s United Arab Emirates (UAE) offices have signed up to a local initiative to increase the proportion of Emiratis holding jobs in the private sector.

It is the only law firm to join the Tawteen (localisation) programme, which includes international blue-chip companies such as BP, Rolls-Royce and Shell.

Each of the participants in the scheme, which is coordinated by charity the Emirates Foundation, will focus on a different area of Emirati empowerment, with DLA Piper supporting female entrepreneurs through career and legal advice.

Wafa Tarnowska, DLA Piper’s Dubai-based regional recruitment manager (legal), said: “If women can start their own business they can be self-sufficient. Women
in the Arab world are an ­undertapped resource.”

DLA Piper has pledged to bring Emiratis into both fee-earning and support roles in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

DLA Piper Middle East managing partner David Church said: “People who’ve grown up and are citizens of the country are naturally appropriate people to have in the firm’s offices.”